MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series hasn’t raced since March 2 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but for ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes, the break was welcome — and necessary.
ThorSport made an offseason manufacturer change from Toyota to Ford, with a small window of time to accomplish the changeover. That’s why Rhodes was fine with the pause in the schedule after Las Vegas.
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“With our switch to Ford this year, we need all the time we can get,” said Rhodes, who finished fourth, fourth and seventh in the first three races. “We haven’t been to the wind tunnel yet. We haven’t done any of the other things that teams like Kyle Busch Motorsports and GMS Racing are doing.
“This time allows us to do some R&D on our side and really work off the track to get at speed. A lot of the speed you see these days is made at the shop, from the wind tunnel, the seven-post machine, stuff like that. It’s kind of a blessing, but the racer in me wants me to race every single day.”
Incidentally, Rhodes is also the poster child for the value of stage points in NASCAR racing. He finished fourth in the season opener at Daytona but failed to finish in the top 10 in either of the first two stages of the race and left the track 16th in the series standings, tied for the position with journeyman Norm Benning.
He’s now ranked fifth in the overall driver standings.
RELATED: Full Camping World Truck Series standings